Higglety Pigglety Pop

Here is a preview of the stop motion/puppet film of Maurice Sendak's Higglety Pigglety Pop or there must be more to life. One of his best books about the terrier Jenny and her search for finding some meaning in her life beyond getting everything that she wants. It's going to be included on the dvd of Where the Wild Things are, as Spike Jonze produced it. It was directed by the Canadian duo Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski.
They also made Madame Tutli-Putli, an amazing animated film you can see here.

Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is one of the books that made me choose to become an illustrator. Most people here know it as Max en de Maximonsters, a far worse title than the original, but ...oh well.
At any rate, after a really very long time the 1st trailer of the film-adaptation was released today.
And before you say; 'really? Do they have to ruin every book with another stupid movie?',
Sendak personally reserved the rights to approve the director. And so the film fell in the hands of Spike Jonze, who you should know as the director of Being John Malkovich.
So, now that you are properly prepared,
here you go:


I can't wait!

Edit - There's an annoying commercial attached to the video. I'll replace the video as soon as I find a different one to embed.

Coraline

You know a film is going to be good, when they have this among their promotion material.

For more: http://coraline.com/

For Opera lovers and trekkies?

This is too curious not to embed.

Richard Dawkins and Harry Potter

Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene, celebrity-atheist, oxonian and wife of Timelady Romana, has never read Harry Potter, yet he wants to write a book about the 'pernicious' effects of the Potter books on children. Although he doesn't know if there are any.

'Looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's something for research.'

He calls bringing children up to believe in spells and magic anti-scientific and in his book wants to compare mythical/magical thinking with scientific/rational thinking. Comparing myths with factual events and such. The intent of the book is going to be to encourage children to always think for themselves and look for the eveidence of things.

Well whoopteedoo, as though fairytales are supposed to be taken literally. As though children think Harry Potter is real. Like those prudish shrieking crusaders who want to remove Harry Potter from library shelves he seems to vastly underestimate children. It may be fun to make believe that Harry Potter is real, that you can do spells, but I think that most children can differentiate between fact and fiction very well.

I suspect that what mr. Dawkins is afraid of is not that children might believe in Harry Potter, but that it will somehow make them more susceptible to believe in god.

In the end he should look at his own words again I think. 'Looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I'm not sure.'
Well it hasn't affected him much, has it?

Anyway he should save himself the trouble and just recommend Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials books, which through the use of mythical storytelling manages to promote thinking for yourself and developing a rational mind.

Lastly, he has trouble with children reading fantasy, but not apparently with them watching it on tv.

Hoezo uitgestorven?

I think I like the feathers best